One Day to Live
by MKP
Summary: After all that Kate Beckett has been through, this just might be the one thing that breaks her.
1. Prologue

Title: One Day to Live  
Author: MKP  
Rating: T  
Summary: After all that Kate Beckett has been through, this just might be the one thing that breaks her.  
Disclaimer: Not mine.  
A/N: So, I've had this idea in my head for about 2 weeks and I have most of the outline done and I am working on chapter 1. Hopefully updates will be fairly regular. Chapter 1 should be up within the next few days for sure.

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*~*Prologue*~*

Long after everyone walked away, she stayed.

Her knees where wet from the damp grass, staring straight ahead not really seeing anything, tears streaming down her face, unable to process the last year of her life.

Kate Beckett wasn't sure how long she knelt there when she felt a hand gently grab her shoulder.

"Kate, it's time to go." The soft voice of her best friend, Lanie Parish, seemed loud in the silence that enveloped them. Kate closed her eyes and let her head fall forward. She felt Lanie kneel down beside her and put an arm around her shoulders. "Kate-"

"No." Kate cut her off as the tears came harder. "I can't leave." She whispered. Her words came out strangled from the sobs that engulfed her body. "I … can't. I can't …walk… away. I can't go."

Lanie pulled Kate into a hug as tears started falling from her eyes also, feeling the pain of her best friend.

"Shh... it's okay. It's going to be okay." Lanie said, softly knowing her friend had a long road ahead of her.

**TBC...**

**A/N: I know it was short, but I couldn't give to much away or it will kill the whole story. The chapters should be fairly longer :) Review if you like, but I won't hold it (or the next chapter) against you. 2 day wait max for chapter 1 :)  
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	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: So, I am a little late, but I re-wrote this chapter twice. I just want to say that this really isn't going to be a case centric fic, mainly because I don't know all the protocols and the time I've spent on research so far has been making me feel like I'm back in college. The only importance this case has, is that it's acts like a catalyst. Thanks for all story alerts and reviews and I'm glad you guys are thinking ahead. When the time comes, please let me know if you guessed right or not :)**

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Part 1

*~*One Year Ago*~*

Kate Beckett pulled as close to the crime scene as she could with the news crews and onlookers around. After she ducked under the yellow tape, she immediately spotted Lanie making notes about the body, so Kate started walking towards her.

"Beckett."

She turned around and seen her partner, coffee in hand.

"Hey Castle." She replied, taking the proffered coffee. They walked the short distance to Lanie in silence.

"What do we have?" Kate asked.

Lanie turned to look at her with sadness etched on her face, "Female, age around 5 years old."

"God."

Both turned with concern when they heard the whisper. Castle waved them off and Lanie continued,

"Cause of death unknown as of right now, and I would place time of death around 4-6 hours ago."

"So she was killed sometime during the night." Kate concluded softly, staring at the young child. "Do we have an id?"

"Not yet. I'll run dentals when I get her back to the morgue."

"Thanks Lanie."

"Yo, Beckett!"

Kate looked towards Javier Esposito.

"We have a witness saying they seen a dark sedan drive off quickly about an hour ago. He was across the street unloading the bread for the bakery, but he didn't think anything of it until he came back out and seen the victim."

"Did he get a license plate?"

"No, but he thinks it was a male driver."

"Ok." Kate replied. She looked around taking in the scene and notice Castle was still off to the side, just holding his coffee. "Lanie, let me know when you get any new information."

"Of course."

"Esposito, you and Ryan head back to the precinct and start looking through missing persons."

"You got it, boss."

Kate paused for a second, not sure if she should go talk to Castle or not. Things had been on edge since the dirty bomb and Josh staying in the states.

"You should go to talk to him." Lanie prompted.

"Lanie-"

"The vic looks just like Alexis only younger. Red hair and blue eyes, even her facial structure is similar. Go." Lanie urged then walked away leaving the final decision up to her.

After taking a deep breath, Kate slowly made her way over to Castle.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Um… yeah. It's just-"

"I know." Kate said, softly. "Come on, we're heading back to the precinct. I'll fill you in on what we have."

**TBC…**


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey readers! So last chapter I said this wasn't going to be a case centric fic, but as I was talking to a couple people, they said they would rather have some more background info on the case so it helps flesh out how Kate and Castle are thinking. So as I started writing this I thought, 'okay a little bit more detail and it should be good.' Only one problem though, the story took on a life of it's own and before I know it I had 3 pages written before there was a good place to stop. So, let me know what you think. And if you have an extra moment, send a review to make my day :)**

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*~*Part 2*~*

Later that day, they found a missing persons report on a 6 year old girl named Elise McCormack. Her mother reported it after talking with the school when her daughter didn't get off of the school bus. After questioning the teacher, it was found out that Elise went to the bathroom and while the teacher thought that she got on the bus, she couldn't be totally sure.

Kate was making a coffee in the break room trying to figure out what they were missing. She let out a sigh as she thought about Castle. When they got back from the scene, she called the mother to come in and after that call, Castle excused himself saying he was going to go home for a while. Probably to make sure Alexis was still safe and off to school.

Kate couldn't deny it; she noticed the resemblance the moment they walked up to Lanie. Elise could have been Alexis' little sister. After Kate caught her breathe, she pushed her emotions back down and went back to work. Castle though, wasn't a cop. He was a father, a father who just saw a mini version of his daughter in an alley, a young child who was dead.

"Beckett."

Kate looked up to see Ryan in the doorway, "Yeah?"

"The mom is here."

"Thanks. Put her in the conference room."

Ryan nodded then left. Kate looked down and took a deep breath. She hated this part of her job. Telling the family one of their loved ones won't be coming back. Telling parents was the worst.

"Hey Beckett."

Even though his voice was quiet and soft, she was so lost in thought, she ended up jumping slightly.

"Sorry." Castle apologized. "Anything new come in when I was gone?"

"Still waiting on Lanie with the results and the mom just showed up. Ryan put her in the conference room, if you want to talk to her with me."

"Sure."

Kate looked at him. He didn't look sure at all, but who was she to stop him.

"Let's go."

They walked into the conference room, and seen the mom sitting on the couch, tissues in hand unable to stop crying. She was alone and Kate wondered if the father of Elise was in the picture.

"Mrs. McCormack-"

"It's Breton. Elise's father and I divorced a couple years ago."

"Ms. Breton, I'm so sorry for your loss."

"El…Elise was only six, my only baby." She took a deep breath and looked at Kate, "Who would do this?"

"That's what we are going to find out for you." Kate replied, and then started asking the normal questions. "Can you think of anyone who would have wanted to hurt Elise?"

"No, of course not, she was only a kid." She replied, a little calmer.

"What about you, do you have any enemies?"

"I just work part time as a crossing guard. That way I can.." Ms. Breton took a deep breath as a lone tear ran down her cheek, "was home for her in the mornings and afternoons."

"What about her father? Is he in the picture?" Castle asked his first question softly from across the room.

"Jacob? He wouldn't have done this. He adores…adored her. We have joint custody. She would go over there on the weekends."

"Is there a way we could get a hold of him?" Kate asked. She had to make sure she covered all the bases. Made sure they all had alibi's. Kate let out a breath, and rubbed in between her eyes, already feeling overwhelmed by this case.

"I called him earlier. He's on a business trip and he said he was going to catch the first flight back." Ms. Breton paused, then asked, "Can I…can I see her?"

"Let me call the medical examiner and find out." Kate replied. "I'm sorry that I have to ask this, but can I just know where you were last night?"

"Of course, my Pastor's wife came over to sit with me. She was there all night, waiting to see if we got any news."

Kate nodded then stood up and went to make the call. The call that would have this mom say goodbye to her only child.

Fifteen minutes later, Kate walked back into the conference room and seen Castle listening to something Ms. Breton was saying, a story by the sounds of it, about a class play that Elise was recently in and how she got the role of the talking tree.

Kate could see the sadness in Castles eyes and wondered what was going through his mind as he was listening to the crying woman remember her daughter.

"Ms. Breton?" she interrupted softly.

The lady stood up and looked hopeful, "Can I see her?"

"I'll be able to take you there in a little while." Kate looked over at Castle, "Can I talk to you, Castle? Ms. Breton, you can stay in here until I'm able to take you there. Would you like a coffee?"

"No, thanks I'm fine. Thank you, Detective." She whispered.

Kate and Castle walked over to murder board that was blank except for a picture of Elise McCormack.

"Lanie's preliminary report is saying that she was suffocated, most likely with a pillow. She found some fibers."

"At least it's a start."

"Lanie also said that Elise put up a fight. She found some DNA under the girls fingertips. She is running tests now on it."

"When will Ms. Breton be able to go to the morgue?"

"Lanie said to wait about five minutes so she could clean some stuff up first."

They both stood there, staring at the blank murder board with the lone picture of a girl who died too early.

Everything finally caught up with Kate when they were at the morgue. Watching Ms. Breton cry over her daughter and break down, pulled the last wall that was built up holding in Kate's emotions.

Not wanting to cry in front of the mom, but also Castle and Lanie, she slowly backed up towards the door and once she reached the hallway, darted towards the woman's room. She heard Castle call after her, but ignored it not wanting anyone to see how much this was affecting her.

She locked the bathroom door and slowly slid down until she was sitting on the floor. Crying for a life of a girl she never met that ended way too early. It took Kate close to ten minutes to get her emotions under control. Still sitting there, she promised herself she would catch whoever tore this daughter from her mother too soon.

**TBC...**


	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: Sorry this update has taken so long. RL was kind of hectic there for a while. Good news is I have up to chapter 7 written and the story is progressing nicely so I'm going to try to put 1-2 chapters out a week. I've never been good on where to actually end a chapter so if they seem short, I'm sorry. Also I'm the type of person who has to hand write the chapter. If I try to type it out I just end up staring at a blank word document, so that also makes the wait a little longer. I hope you all enjoy this and that it was worth the wait.**

*~*Part 3*~*

Jacob McCormick didn't arrive until the next morning, looking like he hadn't slept at all. Kate showed him to the conference room and asked him all the same questions that she asked his ex-wife the previous day.

He only had his daughter on the weekends, but talked to her every night on the phone, He couldn't think of anyone who would want to do anything like this to his little girl.

She had Ryan and Esposito look into his story about his travel times and it panned out. There was nothing unusual in either of the parents' financials and there wasn't a custody battle so it was unlikely it was a custodial kidnapping gone wrong.

When he asked if he would be able to see Elise's body, she let Esposito take him down, not sure she could handle another scene like yesterday.

Kate was sitting on the edge of her desk staring at the still empty murder board. They still had no leads and it was frustrating her. Kate looked over as castle leaned against the desk next to her.

"I could use a theory right about now." She said softly.

Castle stayed quiet so long she thought he wasn't going to answer.

"Unfortunately I don't have any good theories for a murdered child." He replied, softly.

After what seemed like an eternity just looking at the picture of Elise and her parents under the persons of interests, Castle made a soft noise.

"What is it?" Beckett questioned.

"Well, she's six, so obviously one of her kindergarten friends didn't kill her, but what about family members? What do we know about aunts and uncles? Maybe they were into something and Elise became collateral damage.

Kate stayed silent for a moment. "Ryan! Espo!" she called to them.

"Yeah, boss?"

"Get a history on all the family members."

After the family history came back it was close to dinner, so Castle bought Chinese and they got to work in the break room, while eating.

"Jacob's younger brother has a record; mostly breaking and entering and possession. Did a nickel upstate and just got released a little over a month ago." Ryan announced

"Does he have anything recent since he was released?"

"He was picked up a little over a week ago during a drug bust. Cut a deal with the DA."

"It's possible." Kate said, though she didn't sound convinced.

"It doesn't add up." Caste spoke, "If it had something to do with drugs, the dealer would've kept her alive, used her for leverage to get him not to talk. Not just pick her up and suffocate her."

"You're probably right. Espo and Ryan, why don't you guys go talk to the brother and see if you can get anything on the dealer that might suggest he would do this."

"You got it, Beckett."

Once they left Kate shook her head "They aren't going to find anything. They'll be gone for hours wasting time and we still won't be any closer to finding her killer."

Kate threw down the packet of paper she was holding and started to walk out of the room.

"Where are you going?" Castle called after her.

Kate just waved him off and continued to walk away, needing the space.

**A/N: Please review and let me know what you think. Next chapter should be up within the week! **


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: Just want to give a quick thanks to those who added this story to their alerts. 3 more chapters and this case should be done, and on to the part of the story that I was originally going to start from. As I said this case was always the catalyst, it just morphed into it's own mini story after talking to a couple people. Hope you enjoy!**

Part 4

A week later, they still felt no closer to solving the case. All the family members checked out or had an alibi**.** Granted a couple of them had soft alibis, but they didn't seem to have any motive.

Kate was at the end of her rope, sick of going around in circles and not able to give closure to the parents.

Staring at the still too empty murder board, Kate didn't notice Castle walk up to her and jumped slightly when he sat down next to her.

After a moment of both of them just staring at the board, Kate looked over at Castle, "What are you thinking, Castle?"

"The step-mom…"

"Eva McCormack? What about her?"

"Don't you find it weird that she wasn't more shook up? I mean her husband's daughter was murdered. A girl she's been around for close to three years."

"What, you think she has something to do with this?"

"It's not far off." Castle responded with a shrug. "She could be an evil step-mother and all."

"Castle, as fed up I am with this case, I'm not really in the mood for you wild theories."

"I know, believe me I'm just as fed up, but it's just one of the possibilities."

Kate let out a sigh and decided to go with him on this, "What's her motive?"

"Pick one. Maybe she saw Elise as a threat. Or-"

"A threat? Castle, Elise was six years old. A threat to what?"

"I don't know. All I'm saying is that we looked into their financials, but we don't really know them."

"You want to drag all of them in here and question them?"

"A girl doesn't just get snatched from school and show up dead hours later. A kidnapper would've kept her alive and fled or used her for ransom. No one in or around the school heard any screaming which means there's a good chance that Elise knew the person."

"The stepmom, though? Besides our witness said he was pretty sure it was a male."

"Eva McCormack has short hair. Put a baggy shirt to cover her chest and she could pass as a male from a distance."

Kate started shaking her head, not getting on board with his theory.

"What about the DNA under Elise's fingernails? Does Lanie have anything from that yet?"

"There's a backlog in the lab. Lanie said earlier it should only be a few more days." Kate replied halfheartedly, her mind still trying to process his theory. He was partly correct, if the stepmom or even a family member did this, there was a good chance nothing would show up in financials, especially if the family member acted alone.

"Espo, Ryan!" she called to them and looked over to see them both look up from what they were working on at their desks. "Gear up, it's going to be a long night."


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: So first I would like to apologize for the very long wait between chapters. My life has settled down some and I've been working on this story for the last 2 weeks and have a couple chapters written with an outline up to chapter 16 done. I have yet to find a beta, so any mistakes are mine. Hopefully I haven't lost too many readers since it's been about 8 months since I have updated except for the authors note posted about 6 months ago. I think updates will be once a week, most likely Fridays since I don't have to get up early for work on Saturdays. I write old school with a pen and notebook, mainly because if I just try to type it out first I get distracted with everything else on my computer so depending on how fast I can type up the next chapter I might increase it to 2 chapters a week. Once again, thanks for hanging in there and the chapters aren't that long so if you don't remember what happened feel free to re-read it! **

**PART 5 **

After the team went through the family members and split them up into two different piles, Kate told them to go home and get some rest. They would come in early the next day and get started on the interviews. Ryan and Esposito left quickly after cleaning up the break room where they were working, but Kate lingered for a while. She knew she needed to go home and get some rest, but part of her wanted to beat her frustrations out on the punching bag.

"Beckett."

"What Castle?"

"I'll walk you out."

"No, I'm going to stick around for a while longer, get everything in order for tomorrow." She paused shuffling the papers and looked at him, "You should go home, get some sleep."

"Kate, you need to go home also, you're running on empty."

"I'm fine Castle." She replied, grabbing the stack of papers and heading to her desk. The bullpen was mostly empty with just a skeleton crew on.

"You're going to be no good to anyone if you keep going like this."

Kate clenched her jaw, she was frustrated with everything and he wasn't making it any better right now. Just this morning Captain Montgomery pulled Kate into his office to see how far they had gotten on the case and when Kate informed him that they were following up on a few things, but had no definite leads, Montgomery told her if there were no new leads to go on soon, then they were going to send it down to cold cases. Kate could still hear the words in her head,

"_There are fresh murders coming in everyday, Detective. I can't afford to waste man power and resources on a case with no leads. Find something within the next 48 hours or it gets sent to cold cases and your team moves on."_

Kate clenched her jaw then also and replied with a curt, "Yes sir" and silently fuming when he dismissed her. Move on? How was she just supposed to move on? A six year old was murdered for no apparent reason, and he wanted her to move on? Never finding the killer and leaving these parents to always wonder and denied the closure so they could at least try to move on knowing that justice was served. Sent down to cold cases so it could just sit there month after month, year after year until a new lead showed up or they decided to take a closer look? Where does that –

"Hey, you okay?" Castle questioned, interrupted her thoughts when he touched her shoulder.

Kate stood still for a moment, just taking small comfort from his friendly touch. Ever since they froze together he had been keeping his distance. They've talked more during this case than within the last month.

"Castle." She spoke softly at a loss for words.

She felt her stomach drop when he removed his hand.

"Kate," he replied, almost in a whisper, "You should really go ho-"

"I can't!" she cut him off, "I can't go home. I can't relax. There is a six year old dead and a week later we're no closer to solving this."

"Kate-"

"I promised her parents I would find whoever did this and to go home to sleep while they're unable-"

"Hey," he whispered and waited for her to meet his eyes, "we will get whoever killed her. The odds have been stacked against us before and we've beaten them."

"This…this is different, Castle. This is a little girl who was totally innocent. I just… I need-"

"It's okay. You need to take a small breath though. Go home, sleep and tomorrow bright and early we'll start again, refreshed and ready to catch the killer."

Kate looked at Castle long and hard, wondering when during the last week they got back into the rhythm of partners.

Kate briefly wondered what would've happened if she finished her sentence in the freezer. Would he be going back to her place with her?

When he placed his hand back on her shoulder again, she slightly jumped and looked at him. Everything felt so messed up right now.

"I…I will. I just have a couple things to finish up."

"Want me to wait around?" he asked, concern still written on his face.

"No, it's okay. Spend some time with Alexis. I'll see you tomorrow."

Castle gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze and replied with a soft, "Until tomorrow" before he walked away.

**TBC**

**A/N: I'm not totally sure on how cold cases work, but I think they work them until they run out of leads then get sent to a special unit. If not, well it works for the story. Reviews are welcome, but I won't hold onto the next chapter if no one reviews so no worries! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and you are looking forward to the next one! **

**MKP**


	7. Chapter 6

**A/N: So I'm back! This chapter actually turned out different than how I had written it. I started typing and I just kept typing and went with it. I think it turned out okay. I hope you all enjoy. Oh and I don't have a beta so any mistakes are mine and since it's 12:14 in the morning where I am and have been up since Friday morning at 4, there are bound to be a few. :)**

**I would also quickly say that I made a short trailer for this story. It's posted on youtube watch ? v = kM9veByhzNQ it's not much but I think it turned out pretty well.**

**Part 6**

As Castle walked into his loft, he went straight to Alexis' room and let out a long breath when he seen she was sleeping. Everything about this case was getting to him, but also helping him put some stuff into perspective. His need to put distance between Kate and himself didn't seem important anymore. He could put his feelings aside and just be friends.

His mind went to their time in the freezer. Before Beckett lost consciousness, she was about to say something and he briefly wondered how different their lives would be if she were able to finish, if Josh went away and she didn't choose to keep trying to make it work. He focused back on his daughter and the thought hit him that Alexis would be leaving for college in little over a year and they hadn't been on a trip in a while. Maybe they could get away on her next school break and could go somewhere to spend some quality father-daughter time together.

He quietly shut her door and made his way downstairs. He wanted a drink, but knew the team was going to get an early start tomorrow and he wanted to be there.

As Castle made his way to his bedroom, he pulled out his cell, wanting to call Kate and make sure she not only left the precinct, but made it home safely.

"No." he muttered to himself, setting the phone on his nightstand. "She's a detective, she can take care of herself."

As he started stripping down to his boxers, he briefly thought about taking a shower but decided against it and went through his normal nighttime routine. By the time he was laying down, his brain was back on the case and Elise. He wracked his brain trying to think of a scenario where someone would feel the need to kill a six year old. Nothing plausible came to mind and he couldn't shake the feeling that they were missing something. Something that was fundamental to close the case.

He was almost asleep when his phone started ringing.

"Castle." He answered, tiredly.

"Hey I'm sorry I woke you up."

Castle bolted up in bed when Beckett's voice registered. "Beckett?"

There was a slight hesitation, "Yeah, never mind. I'll see you tomorrow Castle."

Before he could respond, the line went dead and he could have sworn he heard a hitch in her voice. Castle tried calling her back, but it went straight to voicemail. He left a short message to call him back if she needed to talk, then forced himself to stay in bed and try to get some sleep.

Kate sat at her desk for about ten minutes before she decided to head to the precinct gym to hit the punching bag. As she was punching the bag, she let her mind wander over the details of the case. They were missing something, they had to be.

Why would anyone want to hurt Elise?

Twenty minutes later of hitting the punching bag, Kate decided to call it a night and head home. She was accomplishing nothing here except working out her frustrations, but not thinking of anything useful to the case. All she knew for sure was there was no way in hell she was going to let this little girls case sit in cold cases for the next thirty plus years going forgotten. No, she would solve it even if she had to keep digging on her own time.

Once she got home, she quickly took a shower then hopped in bed hoping to get a couple hours sleep before heading back to the precinct. She lay on her back staring at the ceiling wanting to fall asleep, but her mind wouldn't let her. She envisioned the murder board and tried thinking of any missing pieces that they haven't recovered yet. Hopefully they would find things out with the interviews tomorrow. All she could do now is rest so she could bring little Elise some justice.

Kate yawned and she prayed that it meant she would be able to catch a few hours of sleep before getting back up, but it was no use. Her mind conjured up the picture of Elise and she couldn't get it out of her head.

A six year old, who according to her mother, loved riding her bike and taking their little puppy for walks. Loved to get together with her best friend who lived next door and climb their tree house where no boys were allowed. Who, even at the age of six loved to be on a stage and was talking about wanting to be on Broadway ever since they went to see Wicked earlier in the year.

And according to her father, loved to stand on the tops of his feet and dance around the living room with him. A little girl who would always want a bedtime story, most always Goodnight Moon even though she knew all the words by heart.

Who would want to end an innocent life so tragically? Rip a child from her loving parents' way before her time? Before she really had a chance to live?

Before she knew what she was doing, she reached for her phone and dialed his number.

He answered on the second ring and immediately noticed that he sounded half asleep, "Castle."

"Hey I'm sorry I woke you up." She replied with a wince. Why did she even let herself call him?

"Beckett?" he asked, sounding surprised.

It felt like another punch to her gut when she realized that they haven't really talked on the phone over the last month unless she was informing him of a dead body.

Kate hesitated slightly, thinking that this was a horrible idea, "Yeah, never mind. I'll see you tomorrow Castle."

She didn't give him a chance to respond before she pressed the end button on her cell and then shut it off for the night. She looked at the clock and realized it was a little after two in the morning.

"What the hell where you thinking Kate?" she muttered to herself before she rolled over and tried to get at least a couple hours of sleep.

**So, what did you think? Hopefully it's not moving to slow? I kind of like the pace even if the story veered off a little from the original plan, but I don't want to shove all this info into one or two chapters just so I can move on. Besides Elise's story of getting justice has started growing on me :) So send a review and let me know what you think. Honest thoughts and opinions would be awesome, just to let me know that I'm doing something right, lol. **


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